If you’re early, you’re on time, if you’re on time, you’re late…
Makes for great coaching advice to your players about promptness…
Doesn’t work great in real life.
When you’re “early” on some coaching ideas, you end up “fighting” with your players. Instead of working together on what’s best for them… You have to spend time educating them as they openly disagree with you and think you’re an idiot.
When you’re disrupting all that they know… The status quo fights back in 3 steps:
Dismiss your idea
Rationally argue against the idea
Openly shame and personally attack the idea, creator or both
Here are a few examples from my time in junior hockey in 2018-2020.
Rondos
I wanted to perform some version of a rondo, every practice day with my team in the year 2018.
3 years before it was deemed “cool” by #HockeyTwitter…
2 coaches thought it was great and so did 3 of the 5 members of my leadership group.
1 coach and the rest of my team thought I was an idiot for suggesting we do a “soccer thing.”
The latter majority ended up winning the fight after a few weeks.
No more rondos.
Now former players have seen rondos go mainstream and message me, “remember when we were doing this?”
Yeah, for 3 weeks until you came into my office and told me the team doesn’t want to do it anymore.
Rondos must have invaded Tictok or something…
Holistic Teaching
My Webvan idea that was too early for tier 3 junior hockey was…
Provide as close to a top-end USHL experience for tier 3 players:
individualized player development plans
custom office training programs based on a pre-season screening evaluation
leadership, behavioral skill, human-being development training
nutrition, sleep, circadian rhythm, “actual human health education”
Our guiding question was, why can’t we provide that at tier 3? Why can’t that be the standard?
It can. It didn’t in my time there.
Now in 2022, this is the standard that parents expect at AAA programs, some travel programs, and even in public high school teams…
What Doesn’t Matter (But Does)
What doesn’t matter is my record in my time with the team. Yet when I interviewed for positions for the last two summers, whenever my experience was brought up… The coach on the other line said, “seemed like it didn’t go well for you…”
Because you’re only looking at my win-loss record.
What Does Matter (But Doesn’t)
Marc Andreessen is a very smart man. He is one of the two heads at a Venture Capital firm called A16Z. The other guy is Ben Horowitz. (you should go down rabbit holes on both)
When he decides which companies to invest in… His first criteria is “the people.”
He bets on, in order:
people
idea
numbers(business growth, market penetration, etc)
While everyone is giving a shit about the numbers… Mark and Ben are looking at the people first.
He wants to know:
what they have tried?
how long they have tried?
why do they believe in the idea?
what they have changed/learned?
Imagine instead of dismissing a coach like me on the phone because you looked up the win-loss record and are just taking the call out of respect for your buddy who recommended me… You asked me about my process… What I was trying to do. What I learned.
Sometimes, the reason for all your “lack of success” is…
You were too early for the party.
In 1996, “Door Dash” didn’t work. It was called Webvan.
In 2022, Door Dash owns the market share in the United States.
Keep your convictions. Don’t be deterred.
P.S. Sometimes it’s just this…
P.P.S A way to remedy being early? Go slower…
great post!